Brighter Futures Annual Report 2024-25

Supporting

Local community organisations understand the strengths and strains within their communities. They have the trust of local people who know they are with them for the long haul.  

Working locally, these organisations create the services their community needs most in spaces where everyone belongs. They transform lives every day.” Locality

(Locality is a national membership network, which supports local community organisations.) 

For the Brighter Futures partnership support means two things – the first is the support its members offer to the individuals who make up the community. This is the more traditional view of support in the context of community development. However, for the Brighter Futures partnership, support runs deeper, because the partnership sees support for the member organisations as a key part of its role. This happens in a variety of ways, including education and training and the innovative development of a buddy scheme for people working in small organisations (see report 2023 –24 for more detail, or contact the partnership to discuss).

Working in an area of deprivation means looking at the immediate relief of poverty, and also considering the wider issues that low incomes and poorer health can bring.

• Poverty makes it harder for people to access services (nearly one in five low-income adults report skipping essential dental care due to the cost), and services do not always reach those in poverty. This lack of access means people living in poverty are getting sicker and accessing services later – accident and emergency (A&E) attendances are twice as high in the most deprived groups, and emergency admissions 68% higher.
• Greater illness and less access to care contribute to worse health outcomes – the mortality rate in the lowest Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) decile is almost double that of the highest.

Kings fund report – see above

Healthy Food and Play Opportunities – Play:Full

 

First, we will visit The Hill Community Centre based in Bretch Hill, Ruscote. In 2024, The Hill took on the role of coordinating the Play:Full project.

Play:Full is a holiday food and activity project which pre-dates the Government’s HAF funding provided to combat holiday hunger. Play:Full operates on a more flexible, community-based approach to providing enriching activities and healthy food for children in deprived areas.

It is non stigmatising and sprang from the aim to ensure that every child had some exciting moments during their summer holiday, irrespective of household income.

Project Leader, Lorraine Squire explains how the Play:Full project supported the community around the Hill.

Play:Full supports local organisations to provide healthy food and enriching activities.

There were more than 900 beneficiaries from the project, far more than we expected. We were able to provide numerous families with access to activities and trips during the school holidays.

Play:Full enabled us to signpost individuals into various activities, either at the Hill or with our other partners. These individuals and families have become more engaged within the community and are more aware of the activities and support available to them after building important relationships with not only with Play:Full but also other organisations.

We asked for feedback from our partners on the most effective way to operate the project. It was a challenge to ensure that the support was targeted at the organisations whose participants were most in need, but we feel we achieved this.

Our Play:Full activity book was well received and was included in each lunch pack. The booklets provided a fun and engaging way to promote healthy eating habits.

Poverty and health suporting data (source ONS)

A comprehensive report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) in 2016 estimated that £29bn of NHS spending was associated with poverty.

One of the report’s authors, Prof Donald Hirsch of Loughborough University said that although the exact cost today cannot be known without repeating the study, it was likely to be much higher.

“We spend a lot more on the NHS now than in 2014, and if the fraction attributable to poverty were the same, the cost would have risen to nearly £50bn,” he said.

“In fact it could be much higher, since far more people are experiencing severe hardship, including hunger and destitution, which could have strengthened the links between poverty and ill health, and hence higher health spending.”

A report by the Royal College of Physicians, estimated that air pollution – which disproportionately affects deprived communities – was contributing to about 30,000 deaths a year and about £500m a week in NHS and economic costs.

Katie Schmuecker, the principal policy adviser at the JRF, said: “Without an urgent commitment to tackling deep poverty, no plan to improve public services can succeed and the NHS and economy will continue to suffer as a result.

“Hardship is causing avoidable harm to people’s health as well as holding back our economy and failing to act on this costs us all dear.”

Schmuecker said widespread deprivation was having a “devastating” effect on the NHS and the economy. Studies have shown that those living in poverty are getting sicker and access healthcare later, contributing to A&E admissions that are nearly twice as high in the poorest groups and emergency admissions that are 68% higher. (Source: ONS)

See Illustrating the relationship between poverty and NHS services.

The Sunshine Centre work with young babies and their carers

The Sunshine Centre is a near neighbour of The Hill, and that’s where our next story will take us.

The Sunshine Centre is a long-established and well-trusted community centre, serving the community but with a great deal of expertise working with young children and babies.

Working with the NHS, The Sunshine Centre offered an NHS course for women with small babies, who are experiencing low mood. Working in a known, trusted venue gave women the confidence to attend.

Tackling Disparities in Early Childhood Development

Despite Oxfordshire’s global reputation for educational excellence, the county faces a significant opportunity to better support children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Research shows that these children start school 5.5 months behind their peers in terms of a Good Level of Development at the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). This gap, if unaddressed, can widen to over 21.5 months (about 2 years) by age 16, with significant implications for long-term outcomes in education, health, and employability.4

The centre also provides services for young parents and for parents with other vulnerabilities.

Maternal Mental Health in Oxfordshire

Between 31 October and 12 December 2022, Healthwatch England (the national health and social care watchdog) carried out national research to find out to what extent mental health support has improved during and after pregnancy following the introduction of the NHS Post Natal Mental Health Checks in April 2020. The findings for Oxfordshire were:

• Some women in Oxfordshire who experienced mental health difficulties during pregnancy or after giving birth found it difficult to access support. Challenges included not being offered support or information about mental health support by healthcare professionals and long waits for referrals to specialist services.
• 38% (17) of the women felt their experience of care and support during and after labour and childbirth had negatively affected their mental health. The problems they experienced included COVID-19 restrictions on partners visiting, a lack of support after giving birth, and a lack of empathy from healthcare professionals. Most women (82%, 37) had had a postnatal consultation with their GP, but 15 said they had not spent enough time talking about their mental health in the consultation, and 10 said that it had not been mentioned at all.
• Seven women mentioned that they had to advocate for themselves to receive the care and support they needed.

Source: Maternal Mental Health in Oxfordshire – December 2023 - Healthwatch Oxfordshire from Oxfordshire data hub

Referrals into Children’s Social care

Dr Matthew Jay, the author of a recent study of Children’s social care told the Observer that “There’s a lot more child ­protection activity going on...It may be linked to cuts in social care, cuts to early care, closures of children’s centres … these broader policies that would otherwise mean children can be cared for perfectly fine within the family, and with that bit of extra support, without needing social care.”

The study confirmed that referrals to Children’s Social care are more likely in areas of deprivation.

The area that represented the most amount of referrals into Children’s Social care (CSC) from 2022 - 2024 is Banbury Ruscote at a total of 61 referrals. This is an identified area of deprivation and has almost double the amount of Northfield Brook (Oxford City) which has the second highest number of referrals into CSC at 35. (Source: The Targeted Youth Support Service Assessment of Youth Services 2024 Oxfordshire County Council.)